Taipei 101

Before the Dubai's Burj Khalifa was completed in 2010, the Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world and is first one to cross half kilometer in height.

I walked in its direction from the Taipei main railway station and it was a seven kilometer walk away. I took it as an opportunity to see the Taipei neighborhoods as I made my way to this iconic building.

It was a hot day with 92F temperature but the roads were full of people.

I saw a glimpse of the building from far away but I still had to walk nearly 1 and a 1/2 hours to see it up close.

The Taipei main train station building is huge with a large atrium. It was full of groups of people sitting directly on the clean floors, chatting, eating, reading or relaxing. The floor had inspiring single word messages on it like 'Smile'.

On the street there was a lot of construction, adding to the already densely built out high rise buildings. Every so often, you could see rental bicycle stands.

Like many metro cities, for example New York, Taipei has nonstop traffic, billboards and shining, gleaming modern buildings.

However, in the midst of the concrete jungle, there are spots with greenery and old growth trees.

Some buildings have interesting sculptures in the front.

The MRT is Taipei's metro rail system and it's elevated tracks are seen everywhere.

Old and ornately decorated temples are intermingled with urban high rises.

Under the metro tracks sometimes you can see interesting sculptures too.

Many road dividers have green regions and mature trees.

As I kept creeping closer to Taipei 101, I sometimes saw glimpses of it through openings where it wasn't covered by other buildings.

In roughly an hour, I was near the building. It is adjacent to the Grand Hyatt and has an entrance from the hotel as well.

The first five floors have a huge mall after which the tower rises up to 508 meters. The interior is shining and glitzy with big brand name companies well represented.

There are many spaces for strolling, taking pictures, sitting and eating in the first five floors.

Tourists can purchase tickets to visit the 89th floor or 101st floor observation decks.

For nearly $20 fare, you can go on their high speed elevators and you get some coupons to spend on their restaurants.

The elevator shows your progress and statistics as you climb up to the 382 meters level in mere 37 seconds.

The views from the observation deck are spectacular.

Some buildings are decked out in colorful lighting showing their silhouettes in the darkness.

From each side you can see the densely packed landscape with roads and buildings.

You are allowed to walk up a couple of floors using the stairwell.

An interesting facet to me was the golden ball that is suspended from cables between the 92nd and the 87th floor. It is the largest wind damping ball in the world. It is also the most externalized and artistic, and has a diameter of 5.5m.

This 660-ton damper has a mass of one thousandth that of the building and cost USD 4 million. It is made up of 41 layers of 12.5cm-thick steel plates. After hoisting each piece up to 380m high, they were welded together to form the damping ball which was then suspended from 2 sets of 4 steel cables, each 9cm in diameter. When there is an earthquake or a

typhoon, the reaction force of the ball counterbalances the vibrations and shaking caused by movement of the earth or strong wind.

As you exit the building and see it glittering in the night sky with its colorful lights, you are filled with awe.